The mote & the beam

Without wishing to add yet another level of incestuous complexity to the subject, I cannot but notice the following lead to a story by Howard Kurtz for The Washington Post on-line: “The Bush-bashing may have faded for the moment, but Vice President Gore won the media skirmishing this morning by figuring out once again how to make news.” Kurtz professes to think that Gore’s victory was the result of an interview he gave to The New York Times about sex and violence in entertainment. This had news value because the vice president had hitherto been thought reluctant to criticize the entertainment industry, whose political contributions tend to go to Democrats. It was also timed to coincide with an FTC report on the “pervasive and aggressive marketing of violent movies, music, and electronic games” to those whom the industry itself considers too young for them.

In...